Based on industry-wide surveys compiled by the Confederation of Finnish Industry and Employers, we create two accurately defined indicators of recruitement problems for the Finnish industry sector. These measures can be used at both firm and aggregate level and they cover the years 1987-2000. We find that the difficulties to recruit suitable labour are related to firm size in two ways: Larger firms have a higher overall probability of facing recruitment problems, but the problems that the smaller firms experience are more severe. Compared to the end of the 1980s, the recruitment problems in 2000 were concentrated to fewer sectors. Still, it can be argued that in some sectors the shortages of labour are comparable to the situation in the late 1980s. The recruitment problems are most prominent in sectors that produce electrotechnical equipment, plastics and rubber, fabricated metal products and ships and transport products. In the short run, the dynamics of the two indicators are mainly detemined by the dynamics in output and unemployment. There is also some evidence that working hours per worker, hourly wages and sector dominance of large firms affect the indicators of recruitment problems.